I had doctor\u2019s appointments most of the day, and while I was in the car I kept switching around on the radio. I pulled up Rush and couldn\u2019t listen more than a few minutes. What I heard was a disappointing, strange, paranoia-feeding rant<\/a> on how the \u201cmoderate Republicans and Democrats in the Senate\u201d have a deliberate plan afoot to \u201cenlarge the number of victims and people who will need welfare services\u201d so as to \u201cenlarge government\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n It\u2019s all a plot and a conspiracy, you see\u2026nothing could possibly simply be about stupid and lackluster career politicians<\/em> trying to finally, finally, finally do something about an issue no one has wanted to touch for 30 years and doing it haphazardly, fearfully and imperfectly, and with the usual suspects trying to add their own flourishes, which must always be batted down, whether the issue is illegal immigration or almost anything else.<\/p>\n No, no. It\u2019s a plot!<\/em> It\u2019s a conspiracy, meant to bring down America and put the conservatives in their place! To create a permanent underclass! To enlarge government, create more victims and raise our taxes! (what <\/em>nonsense<\/em>\u2026we\u2019re in a freaking war and spending more than ever, yet our revenues are growing<\/em> thanks to the tax cuts\u2026it\u2019s funny how, when it suits a need, suddenly taxes will have to be raised<\/em>\u2026)<\/p>\n Maybe I should launch a conspiracy theory of my own\u2026say\u2026oh, something silly, like maybe this hysteria is just the conservatives doing everything they can to foment enough discord and discontent to create the \u201cdemand\u201d for a third party candidate.<\/em><\/p>\n Which worked out so well for all of us in 1992. Hey, one conspiracy theory is as good as the next, isn\u2019t it?<\/p>\n Now, I grant you, some of what is in this Senate immigration bill is<\/em> objectionable and must<\/em> be striken \u2013 it makes no sense at all for illegals to have better job-protection and benefits than American citizens. Social Security entitlements? I don\u2019t think so. The idea of giving Mexico veto power over a fence or barrier idea is ludicrous.<\/p>\n But\u2026for heaven\u2019s sake, the thing is going to go to Congress, it\u2019s going to get cleaned up and turned around \u2013 what has come out of the senate will not be the thing that (assuming anything actually gets passed) will be passed. There is some evidence that something workable may actually emerge from all of this \u2018initial\u2019 hoo-ha<\/a>.<\/p>\n I know there are different opinions on the issue of these illegals, and everyone, on every side, \u201chas a point\u201d but I was extremely disheartened by what I heard on the radio, and by some of what I am seeing in blogs and in my email. I had to turn Rush off \u2013 there was something so insideous about the \u201cship them all back,\u201d rhetoric flying between him and his callers that it was making my flesh feel crawly. \u201cRound them up and ship them back, devote a whole law-enforcement team to it, we can get rid of all of them in 7 years, Rush!\u201d<\/em> Stunning. Appalling. I couldn\u2019t believe what I was hearing.<\/p>\n Aside from the legal and moral ramifications of trying to \u201cround them all up -\u201d I got out of the car thinking, are they forgetting that we are talking about human beings, here?<\/em> Many of whom have been here for years, initially through legal means<\/em>, and who have created lives? People with lives and families who \u2013 like how they got here or not \u2013 are HERE and are mostly contributing to society in positive ways? Honestly, the folks on the radio sounded extremely narrow and over-the-top. The humanity of the illegals seemed as unmentionable to them as the humanity of a baby-in-utero is to a feminist.<\/p>\n And funnily enough, I didn\u2019t hear anyone complaining about the annual influx of illegal Irish immigrants who come in via Montauk and stay. But they\u2019re charmers, aren\u2019t they? Good senses of humor, they work and they don\u2019t ever cause trouble\u2026right?<\/em><\/p>\n Build a wall, by all means. Make sure you build it deep, so tunneling is difficult. Arm it and stand guards. I\u2019m all for it. But this overheated rhetoric, this astonishing willingness by too many to keep blowing on the flames until something erupts<\/em>\u2026this is not good.<\/p>\n I cannot buy into this idea that suddenly America will be overthrown unless 11-12 million illegals are \u201cshipped out, no matter what the story is\u2026\u201d<\/em> I also cannot buy into the idea that there is a conspiracy afoot to create a socialist state, anymore than I buy the idea that this brouhaha is a conspiracy on the right to form a third party. But what do I know? Maybe everything<\/em> is a grand conspiracy, after all. In which case, everyone is working at cross-purposes and all of this sound and fury may signify nothing\u2026<\/p>\n I still believe angels ride in whirlwinds.<\/p>\n I also believe that Hispanics are the upcoming huge voter bloc in this nation, and that most of them (not the A.N.S.W.E.R. rowdies or the useful idiots who exist in EVERY ethnic group) are fairly conservative types of folks, and the conservatives are doing all they can to convince the Hispanics that they will never be welcome in the GOP. I have emails from Hispanics who have worked on GOP campaigns and contributed to GOP causes and who are dazed and feeling very much like they are not welcome. One fellow \u2013 Mexican\/German \u2013 of immigrant parents, has gone from supporting the initial idea that immigrants should be encouraged to come here legally to deciding that the conservative tone has crossed a line where he cannot follow.<\/p>\n I am concerned about people running so hot on this issue \u2013 with the heat being enhanced by the bellows blowing on it via talk radio and some blogs \u2013 I am concerned that someone is going to get hurt. I\u2019m concerned that people are losing their heads over this.<\/p>\n \u201cOh, Anchoress, the whole nation is going to be hurt if we don\u2019t ship them all back and seal the borders and blah, blah, blah\u2026\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n Are we?<\/em> I have a plumber friend who owns his own business, and he can\u2019t find young white or black men to come learn the trade under him. \u201cThe black kids all want to be rappers and athletes, and the white kids think the sweat is beneath them. The Asian kids are all going to college to become doctors.\u201d But the Hispanic kids want to learn. They want to work and support themselves, they want to learn the language so they can enter the marketplace. I hear a lot of sneering about the \u201cjobs Americans don\u2019t want to do\u201d line\u2026but the truth is, while the line may be just a line\u2026it has some<\/em> (limited) basis in fact.<\/p>\n 70 or 80 years ago, my own ancestors were coming in, legally, and learned to hang drywall and fix automobiles and fight fires. Yes, they were legal\u2026the nation had well-run, functional programs to handle a huge influx.<\/em> Had such a program not been in place, they would have come, anyway\u2026and they would have been illegal!<\/p>\n I wonder why it is that we do not, today have a well-run, functional immigration program to handle the huge influx of people who wish to live here. Why aren\u2019t we WORKING on creating such a program?<\/em> Why isn\u2019t that part of any immigration bill \u2013 the reform of the INS?<\/p>\n We\u2019re going to need our immigrants as the boomers retire and weigh heavy on our SocSec system and their children barely reproduce at replacement levels. Why can\u2019t we bring back the idea of Ellis Island \u2013 create an Ellis Island West (or \u201cIslands\u201d) of strategically-placed processing centers, so to speak \u2014 which would prevent the \u201cillegality\u201d of our immigrants?<\/p>\n That might be helpful, you know? Make \u2019em legal, get \u2019em paying taxes\u2026Sure, some people called my grandfather a \u201cfilthy wop<\/em>\u201d and my other grandfather a \u201clazy mick\u201d and they bitched because the carousel at Coney Island suddenly played Italian hurdy-gurdy instead of genteel songs from the gay 90\u2019s, but everyone adjusted. The nation grew stronger.<\/p>\n Alexandra has a good post up<\/a> on the issue, and she ends by linking to this very interesting partial transcript of an interview between Rush and Tony Snow<\/a>. Radio Equalizer also has a partial<\/a> and some thoughts. California Conservative said conservatives should be proud of the debate<\/a> and he\u2019s probably right about that.<\/p>\n Once I finally got a chance to listen to the exchange between Limbaugh and Snow, (thanks to a pal) my sense was that Rush was not convincing in his arguments and he knew it. He sounded tentative and uneasy the whole time, and I came away thinking Snow got the better him and had been entirely too convincing for Rush\u2019s liking. And I am not a Rush-hater by any means. I\u2019ve often admired his skill and enjoyed his humor\u2026but lately\u2026but, I could give him the benefit of a doubt, too, and suggest that perhaps Rush, who has always struck me as mannerly, was simply being deferential to Snow.<\/p>\n Still\u2026<\/p>\n I wrote a few days ago<\/a> something that I think Tony Snow (with his \u201cspeeding ticket\u201d remark) was trying to say today<\/a>, although his analogy was not a good one:<\/p>\n There are no negatives in Christ.<\/p>\n I also put forth my own admittedly simplistic and probably unrealistic idea:<\/p>\n \nMaybe the answer is something I\u2019ve been thinking about for a little while \u2013 a sort of registry in which a \u201cguest-worker\u201d who has been here for a while and has demonstrated his peaceable intentions would register and pay a recurring fee (not a tax, which would give rise to demands for representation and votes, but a fee \u2013 a usable source of revenue for the local government) and in exchange have the \u201cright\u201d to work without being harassed or having to look over his shoulder all the time. Perhaps these registration centers would offer classes in English for nominal fees, to help them in their assimilation. Such a registry might even be able to eventually offer affordable group health insurance to take some of the burden off of the hospitals (and the rest of us). Okay, maybe it\u2019s a stupid or naive idea. I never said I was brill. That\u2019s why I\u2019m not a community leader. But someone, somewhere has an idea that will work.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n I seem to be losing friends over this issue which is not my choice<\/em> \u2013 but there you go. I cannot get on the train with the people who are spitting mad and convinced that the nation is utterly doomed, and will die quickly unless their EXACT RECIPE is followed. There is just something really wrong with that \u2013 with the whole mindset. And there is an undercurrent of something \u2013 not among the friends I am losing so much as in the blogs and on the radio \u2013 I can\u2019t put my finger on, but I don\u2019t like it. I can\u2019t embrace it.<\/p>\n
\nThe right has a disproportionate number of Christians in its tent, and Christians are supposed to know a thing or two about forgiveness and second-chances. By the light of Christ, a whore is not forever a whore and a thief is not forever a thief. Are we conservative Christians going to forget our own second chances \u2013 some of them known only to God and ourselves \u2013 and declare that while we might not always be wretches, <\/em>\u201can illegal is always an illegal and there is no mercy, no chance to be something more\u2026\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n
\nI can\u2019t believe that. Can\u2019t accept it. Won\u2019t be part of it. Our Lord demands more from us than a shrill dehumanization of what He has created, some demagoguery and a quick look-away as we shout, \u201cship \u2018em back! Bad! All Bad!\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n